Mass Effect: Legacy
by bale626
Summary: A glitch here, a change of heart there. All it takes to alter what was meant to be are the smallest things. But even the wings of a butterfly can bring about great change. What makes the biggest difference? Timing; because timing is everything.


A/N: this idea has been floating in my head for quite literally months, to the point I can't even make progress on my other story. Go figure.

This chapter is mostly a bit of synopsis/setup for the story as a whole. If people like it, I'll continue with it, as well as my other story.

* * *

><p>Mass Effect: Legacy<p>

Chapter 1

_"The grid; a digital frontier. I tried to picture clusters of information as they moved through the computer. What did they look like? Ships, motorcycles? Were the circuits like freeways? I kept dreaming of a world I thought I'd never see. And then, one day... _

_I got in._"

- Kevin Flynn

* * *

><p>Two hours, fifty three minutes. That's how long it took for everything to change.<p>

How it changed... Well, that will need some explanation.

* * *

><p>In the 1980's, a man named Kevin Flynn created his own digital world, The Grid. He even went so far as to create a digital clone of himself, if you will; a creation known as Clu.<p>

In another world, maybe in another time, Clu would have trapped Flynn inside The Grid. In another world, Flynn may have ran in fear for his life, abandoning his friend and ally, Tron.

This is not that world.

In truth, Kevin Flynn stood beside Tron against Clu. The two of them were able to destroy Clu before he could defeat them, though it was at the cost of Flynn's sight. A single lucky swing by the deranged digital clone caught the man across his eyes, blinding him.

A few months later, the Iso's were revealed to the world at large. Riots and panic ensued in many third world countries. Stock markets rose and fell at random, and churches collapsed and reformed across the globe. Within a year, new cures were found for many diseases thought to be terminal. New fields of science exploded, throwing what mankind thought they knew of physics and nature into flux.

Two years after the Iso's introduction to mankind, it was discovered that Iso's and humans were, in fact, genetically compatible, with an Iso female becoming pregnant by a human male.

Six months later, on the first of November, 1985, the first of a new breed, the Iso-Sapien, was born. A healthy young boy.

By 1989, there were almost a thousand Iso-Sapien children alive. That very same year, noted computer experts Steve Jobs and Bill Gates discovered/created a computer algorithm that could turn both Iso's and Humans into Iso-Sapien hybrids, using the same laser array used to teleport between the physical world and The Grid. To demonstrate, Steve Jobs himself acted as the first human to undergo the transformation.

When this news was released to the public, many people rejoiced; many others panicked. Rioting ensued, even in first world countries such as the U.K., France, Russia, and all across the Americas. Thankfully, the riots did not last long.

By 1993, the first Flynn class carrier, a model taken from the hidden Clu archives, was brought into the physical world. With this accomplishment, it was discovered that materials could be created in The Grid and brought into the physical world, as a sort of replication process. However, the more dense the material, or the more material transported, the higher the energy requirement. Where a single individual could enter or exit The Grid at will with the same power requirement as a single light bulb, transporting a ship like the Flynn class carrier into the physical world required substantially more power, such as powering New York for an hour.

In 1994, the very same Flynn class carrier travelled into space, with no complications. People across the world rejoiced at the potential of a new era of easy space travel. The Iso-Sapien population at this point had reached the forty thousand mark.

By 1999, humanity had approximately 27 Flynn class carriers in the physical world, ferrying supplies across the globe and into orbit. Almost all wars and conflicts across the globe have ceased by this point, as mankind looks to the stars. A large station had been built orbiting the Earth, able to dock a dozen carriers at once, with plans to expand further. The first carrier was also sent to the moon to begin colonization.

It was in the year 2005 that tensions began to heat up between humans and Iso-Sapiens, after a harsh economic downturn. Many normal humans began to feel threatened by the existence of the Iso-Sapiens, now numbering over a hundred thousand, and began creating laws that worked against them. They were subtle at first, limiting very little things.

By the time mankind reached Mars in early 2011, the entirety of the Iso-Sapien population had been essentially banished to The Grid. They were unable to leave, and were forced to continue to produce ships and other technology for humankind.

The end of 2012 brought the discovery of the Prothean bunker on the surface of Mars. Within a few days, the Prothean Archive was located. Rather than spend months attempting to translate it, one scientist pushed for permission to simply create a direct link between the Archive and The Grid, to force the Iso-Sapiens to translate everything.

The decision was approved, and the scientists assembled the machinery necessary to create the link. Once built, they activated the link. It was at this point that things went awry.

The reason for this is simple, as far as the explanation is concerned. Before the connection to the Prothean Archive, there was always a time differentiation between The Grid and the physical world. Time simply moved at a faster rate within The Grid.

However, the severity of the time difference was exponentially increased once the Prothean Archive became a part of The Grid. Two hours and fifty three minutes, or rather, one hundred and seventy three minutes of time in the physical world became something different in The Grid; it became seventeen thousand and three hundred years.

Seventeen millennia is a very long time for things to change; especially on The Grid...

* * *

><p><em>"What do you mean you can't figure out what's wrong?!<em>"

The scientist quietly gulped to himself. "I-I'm sorry, sir. Whatever is going on between The Grid and the alien archive has made the entire Grid unresponsive."

The politician on the other end of the vid-call turned an even darker shade of red. _"I don't care what you have to do, Johnston, you get The Grid back online! We are nearing the three hour mark, and the shipyards are getting impatient. I will not be held responsible for any further dela-_"

Suddenly, the power went out around them, the entire facility going dark. Johnston turned as he heard a whining noise come from behind. His eyes went wide as he realized there was a great deal of ambient light coming from the alien artifact.

In a flash of light, three people appeared in front of the artifact, their apparel painting them to be Iso-Sapiens, fully enclosed in some kind of body suit. In a flash of irritation, Jonhston began walking over to them. "What is going on? You three are not authorized to be out of-"

The Iso-Sapien in the middle seemed to move faster than he could see. Johnston rapidly came to the realization that he was no longer on the ground, and he was struggling to breathe.

The Iso-Sapien's helmet retracted, showing a chiseled face, with a strong jaw, black stubble on his face, a buzz cut, and glowing blue eyes. The Iso-Sapien stared at him, his gaze piercing. After a moment, he merely smirked.

"Thank you, Doctor Johnston, for linking The Grid to the Prothean Archives. Thanks to your ineptitude, our civilization has advanced far beyond the paltry means of Homo-Sapiens. Now, we will reclaim our own glory, beyond your species' reach."

With that, the man snapped Johnston's neck, tossing the body aside like so much trash, as more Iso-Sapiens came from the Archive.

* * *

><p>In a matter of a few hours, the Iso-Sapiens overtook the facility. By the end of the day, every ship created within The Grid had been reclaimed by the Iso-Sapiens as well. Any Homo-Sapien that stood against them fell. Three days later, every Flynn class carrier, as well as the relocated Prothean Archive, moved out of the solar system at previously unheard of speeds. They did, however, leave a fully functional Prothean freighter at the facility.<p>

It would also be later discovered that all traces of The Grid had been removed from every single computer on planet Earth, and despite the efforts of the best scientists and programmers, would never be duplicated again. At least, not by Homo-Sapiens.

And so, humanity would develop on its own, without the technological aid of The Grid. But this story is not about them. At least, not in a direct sense.

* * *

><p>-X-<p>

* * *

><p>Journal Entry #5,623,836<p>

_My name is Jacob Dawson, or Sentinel Dawson, depending on who you ask; this is the first journal entry after The Event, and the first one that I will allow to be distributed to the public, to help them understand us better. I am one of twenty six of the remaining first generation Iso-Sapiens, or Terrans, as we call ourselves. That makes me... hmm, about seventeen thousand, three hundred and thirty two years old now. _

_The Event, to those who do not know, is what occurred when The Grid was linked with a Prothean Beacon. In short, we were trapped within The Grid for over seventeen thousand years. Quite a lot of time to develop and advance our technology and society, if you ask me. It was also a great deal of time to consider other things..._

_My extreme age is of a curious nature. It would seem that we Terrans can have nearly limitless lifespans. The only catch is we have to make it past the period of destabilization. When we Terrans reach an age between two and three thousand years of age, we hit a point where our minds destabilize, go rampant, that sort of thing. The younger we are when we hit that point, the greater our chances of survival. _

_Of course, we didn't know that at the time, nor did we know what it would take to cause earlier onset of mental destabilization. That is why only twenty six of we first-gens are left. There are no second-gens, or even third-gens. It wasn't until nearly the fifth generation that we realized that we could encourage the early onset of mental destabilization through strenuous combat training. _

_Thus, our youth military training regimen began. Every Terran, once they hit twenty years of age, were required to spend a century of standard military training. They could specialize after that, and spend an additional fifty years of training. But that was optional. But I digress. _

_In being one of twenty six remaining first-gen Terrans, it didn't take long before the rest of Terran-kind began to look up to us, as some sort of wise men (or women, in eight cases). They didn't make us dictators or anything, but when we spoke, __**everyone **__listened. Eventually, we were bestowed the title of Sentinel; defenders of the Legacy of Mankind. The governing Terran council deemed to give us the rights to defend mankind in any way we saw fit, to stand above our own laws. _

_We protested, of course. We were raised under a democracy, after all, and believed in the rule of law. But the rest of our kind would not listen. They had spoken, and that was that. So it became our duty to strive to deserve the honor they had given us. Something we still strive for to this day, millennia later. _

_In hindsight, it probably was for the best things played out that way, what with the Reapers coming. _

_Oh, I almost forgot that part. _

_Being that The Grid was linked so completely with this Prothean Archive, we had intimately complete access to everything stored there. We even accessed other Prothean beacons still active and linked to the system. I have to say, those Protheans sure knew how to build a galactic network. _

_Within this archive was all the collective data the Protheans had access to regarding the Reapers; their tactics, their technology, everything they could find. It didn't take us long to decide that large fleets of massive ships were a waste of time. The Reapers would make that strategy worthless. _

_Our status as Sentinels gave us the clout we needed to ensure Terran-kind didn't make that mistake. We needed a different plan. So we came up with one. _

_Surprisingly, the Flynn class carrier was a perfect design for what we needed; a ship to haul multitudes of troops, as well as be a versatile platform for different weapons and support modules. Ironically, the design was even more perfect for the implementation of Mass Relay technology, what with the giant circular platform sticking off of one side. _

_Before I continue too far along a tangent (yet again), I should mention more about those Prothean Beacons we linked to through the Archive. It seemed that there were a good twenty Beacons scattered around the galaxy that were still active. But that wasn't the most interesting part. _

_One of the Beacons seemed to be on another sentient race's home world. And they were accessing it on a semi-regular basis. Unfortunately, we were unable to glean much information about them, other than the fact they are known as Asari, where their home world is located, and that they look suspiciously similar to Humans._

_We also discovered the locations of every Relay the Protheans discovered, as well as the location of the Citadel, where they once ruled the galaxy from. Knowing that it is actually the heart of the Reaper trap, our people plan to avoid it for as long as possible. The less the Reapers know about us, the better off we all are. _

_On a related note, we will also try to avoid the relay network. The last thing we need is to have the species of this harvest's cycle trying to hunt us down, especially if the reaction from the rest of Humanity is any indicator. _

_Hmmm... Humanity. Ever the issue of contention amongst Terrans. Even now, after countless generations and seventeen thousand years, some of our people want to forgive them, whereas some want to leave them to their own fate. _

_My own opinion is somewhere in the middle, I think. I do wish to protect Humanity from the Reapers, but I also want to keep them at arm's length, as it were. Most of the other Sentinels seem to agree with me. Shepard, however, harbors his own hatred for Humanity. _

_Jonathan Shepard was distraught when his mother died in The Grid. His grief turned to hatred for his human father and Humanity as a whole, especially since he knew that his father had remarried once we Terrans had been banished into The Grid. Before we left the Sol system, I did a little checking; it turns out Shepard has a little human brother. I haven't had the heart to tell him yet, as I do not know how he would react to that. _

_As for the general Terran population, most of them are content to simply leave Humanity alone. _

_Back to my original point, we do not particularly want to deal with any alien races, but we need to be prepared, regardless. Our scientists and engineers have been hard at work, cooking up some promising things for all of Terran-kind, both militarily and otherwise. _

_That isn't our primary goal, however. First and foremost, is finding a new home. There is a solar system approximately twelve light years from the Sol system that we are on our way to check out. If it is suitable. Then we can begin construction of Home Sphere. After three thousand years dedicated to its design, I think we should be able to build it within a few decades. _

_Only time, however, will tell for sure..._

* * *

><p>AN: So... Any thoughts? Drop a review if you care to.


End file.
